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But love among the skyscrapers is a risky proposition. As the great birds of prey - one male, known as Pale Male because of his colouring, and two successive females, First Love and Chocolate - prepared for parenthood, the loyal watchers grew apprehensive ... with good reason, it turned out. The unfolding drama, chronicled by Marie Winn in this enchanting book, was to take some unexpected twists, developing into a magical tale of disappearance and mistaken identity. In telling it, the author draws us spellbound into the adventures not only of the hawks, but also of the park's other wildlife residents - water birds, owls, raccoons, orioles, woodpeckers - and of the birdwatchers, whom we come to know as the Regulars. In a tale as bewitching as Alice's, Central Park is the wonderland; its inhabitants, both human and avian, are the compelling cast of characters in this most charming story of romance, exhilaration, despair and obsession.… (more)
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There’s a lot of love poured out in this book. It flows freely from the New York City hawk watchers, of whom the author is one, for the red-tailed hawks of the title and the myriad bird life in and around Central Park. The story turns around the mating attempts, failures,
If you want a scientific discourse on hawks and their mating habits or the skinny on avian romance from the birds’ point of view, don’t look for it here. Only as much ornithology is offered as needed to understand why the human participants in the story react to events as they do. The birds are not artificially thrust into the narrator’s role; their separateness from our species is not negated by the author’s imagination. I respect the author’s decision; it fits well with my preference that animals be respected for what they are; not for how they are similar to us, how they entertain us, or how they are useful to us. This decision does mean that readers, like the hawk watchers, can only observe the wildlife drama of the book’s subtitle from a distance.
What this rather charming book offers close up is the tale of the watchers themselves, their love of birds, and the informal community that coalesces around their nesting season hawk nest stake-outs. The reader is drawn to these people who love birds and are willing to sacrifice comfort (like warm beds on cold mornings), endure tedium (to watch and wait for signs of hatching), and sometimes put aside their “real” lives (even to the extent of postponing job hunting) to feed their love.